This disclosure relates to the wireless communication networks such as cellular mobile communication networks.
Many wireless communication networks can include different channels with which an access node or base station can exchange information with an access terminal or mobile station. Examples of such channels include pilot channels, synchronization channels, paging channels, and traffic channels.
A pilot channel is a forward-link channel from an access node to access terminals. A pilot channel can be used by access terminals to a variety of different ends. For example, depending on the particulars of the wireless communication system, access terminals can use a pilot channel to acquire timing phase synchronization, as a reference to measure the signal strength from the access node, to identify a sector, as a coherent reference signal in the demodulation of coherent Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation, and/or to identify a multipath-delay structure.
A pilot channel can be modulated by a pilot pseudonoise spreading code. In digital wireless communication networks, pseudonoise codes are binary sequences that appear random over relatively long periods and exhibit noise-like properties. In some implementations, the pilot pseudonoise spreading code is common to different channels transmitted from a given base station. The power level at which a pilot channel is transmitted is typically higher than the power of other channels and can be, e.g., on the order of 25% of the total forward-link power.